The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 6 eBook

Since I saw you I have been in France, and have eaten
frogs. The nicest little rabbity things you ever
tasted. Do look about for them. Make Mrs.
Clare pick off the hind quarters, boil them plain,
with parsley and butter. The fore quarters are
not so good. She may let them hop off by themselves.

Yours sincerely,

CHAS. LAMB.

[John Clare (1793-1864) was the Northamptonshire poet
whom the London Magazine had introduced to
fame. Octavius Gilchrist had played to him the
same part that Capell Lofft had to Bloomfield.
His first volume, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life
and Scenery, was published in January, 1820; his
next, The Village Minstrel, in September of
the next year. These he had probably sent to
Lamb. Helpstone was Clare’s birthplace.
Lamb’s two little return volumes were his Works.
The sonnet in the August London Magazine was
not signed by Clare. It runs thus:—­

Clare addressed to Lamb a sonnet on his Dramatic
Specimens which was printed in Hone’s Year
Book in 1831.

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Ayrton dated
Sept. 5, 1822, referring to the writer’s “drunken
caput” and loss of memory.

Here should come a letter from Lamb to Mrs. James
Kenney, dated Sept. 11, 1822, in which Lamb says that
Mary Lamb had reached home safely from France, and
that she failed to smuggle Crabb Robinson’s waistcoat.
He adds that the Custom House people could not comprehend
how a waistcoat, marked Henry Robinson, could be a
part of Miss Lamb’s wearing apparel. At
the end of the letter is a charming note to Mrs. Kenney’s
little girl, Sophy, whom Lamb calls his dear wife.
He assures her that the few short days of connubial
felicity which he passed with her among the pears
and apricots of Versailles were some of the happiest
of his life.]